CHAMBERSBURG -- A BB pistol was taken off a Chambersburg Area Senior High School student Friday morning followed social media threats made toward Franklin County schools on Thursday.

The 11th grade student at CASHS is now in police custody.

"(Thursday) evening, we became aware of Facebook comments made about a weapon being brought to the CASHS high school today," said Superintendent Joe Padasak. "We took the threats seriously and contacted the State Police, our local police and the district's security force."

Padasak said the school was on "high alert" Friday morning and did not permit visitors to enter the building.

The district has extra police presence at the school, including the district's police department, Chambersburg Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police.

According to the school, at 8:45 a.m. it was reported to a teacher that a student was carrying a weapon. By 8:50 a.m., an 11th grade student was detained and found to be in possession of a BB pistol. The student is now in police custody and the district says the school is safe.

"The district takes this very seriously," said CASD Assistant Superintendent Cathy Dusman. "It was handled within five minutes of the report. District police, borough police and state police were visible on the grounds as well as in the building this morning."

School will continue to operate as planned with a two hour early dismissal.

Parents have been notified with our instant notification system, all students at CASHS have been notified of the incident as well as all District administrators.

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The district has had extra police in and around schools this week following the tragic school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. last week.

"The school district has extra police presence in place and has had extra police presence in the building all day," said Dusman. "Parents have been notified by our global connect instant notification system. Information has been placed on the Web site. All students received a message from the principal regarding the incident."

Padasak said the district is monitoring social media activity through the Internet Monitoring Task Force.

"We have no evidence as to the credibility of any other threats even though there is significant traffic on the social networks stating otherwise," said Padasak.

Greencastle-Antrim School District and Waynesboro Area School District have also been cautious today following online threats.

G-A Superintendent Greg Hoover said the district was taking precautions for an online threat similar to ones Harrisburg area school districts viewed earlier this week. Hoover said the district sent out a phone call to all parents and Greencastle Police Department has been on the school campus all day.

The district and police didn't view it as a "credible" threat due to multiple locations and the announcements.

"We are in a state of 'heighten awareness,'" Hoover wrote in an email.

The school was dismissing early today -- not for the threat -- but for Christmas break.

Waynesboro administrators also saw threats online Thursday and began taking precautions. High School principal Christopher Dennis sent out a phone call to all high school parents on Thursday evening. The district also contacted Waynesboro Police Department to share information.

Students are attending classes on Friday as usual. There will be an early dismissal for the holiday break.

The district said it will continue to pursue any threats to find out the source of the information.

"After reviewing the Facebook postings, the police do not believe there was anything substantial to cause us to take any specific precautions beyond our established safety procedures, and school is currently in session as usual," WASD Superintendent Sherian Diller wrote in a message. "This morning we also received information by Facebook postings that threatened other district schools. We are currently working with local and state police to identify individuals who are posting this information.

"We want to reassure students and parents that school safety is our top priority."

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